On the surface "Three Kings" may look like a gulf war version of "Kelly's Heroes," but it's got a lot more in common with the movies "Catch-22" and "M*A*S*H."

And while it's not quite as good as the latter two pictures, this dark comic war movie has definitely got the potential to be a political firestarter. There are audiences who will be angered with many of the film's intimations regarding U.S. foreign policy in Kuwait and Iraq.

But regardless of your particular political leanings, or where your opinions lie on subject of the gulf war, "Three Kings" is a surprisingly engrossing and thought-provoking war movie — one that's at least a little unexpected. That's especially true since it comes from filmmaker David O. Russell, whose previous works, "Spanking the Monkey" and "Flirting With Disaster," had more to do with family relationships than they did with action sequences and trenchant sociological observations.

This movie should also put to rest some of the sniping about the acting abilities of George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, who play, respectively, Special Forces Capt. Archie Gates and U.S. Army Sgt. Troy Barlow, soldiers caught up in a treasure hunt.

In the waning days of the war, they come into possession of a map showing the location of a fortune in stolen Kuwaiti gold. So off they head into the Iraqi desert with Sgt. Chief Elgin (Ice Cube) and Pvt. Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze), who also goes AWOL in hopes of getting rich.

And though they think they've got the whole caper planned out, problems begin as soon as they arrive at the village. First, the gold isn't where it's supposed to be, and second, the Iraqis seem to be a little too happy to see them, imagining the American soldiers to be their salvation.

Eventually, the four men are reluctantly pulled into a civil war between the Iraqi villagers and members of Saddam Hussein's oppressive Republican Guard, which is torturing and killing anyone without a uniform. And during one of the skirmishes, Troy is captured by Saddam's forces.

If that's not bad enough, the U.S. soldiers are being tracked by their commanding officer (Mykelti Williamson), who's not at all happy with them, as well as a pesky network television news reporter (Nora Dunn), who hopes to come up with one last, great story as the Iraqi conflict winds down.

Admittedly, it may take awhile to warm up to the film's odd rhythms and even more off-kilter humor. But Russell, who also scripted, invests them with an appropriate, visually striking sense of direction, mixing pseudo-documentary "shaky cam" with stark, bleached-out photography. (Perhaps the strangest of his innovations are the bits that show what a bullet can do to the human body — seen from inside the body cavity.)

Russell also gets fine performances from his leads. As Gates, Clooney isn't just a one-dimensional hero, and Wahlberg provides the story with a warm human conscience. And the supporting cast adds additional depth of character, notwithstanding the annoying antics of Jonze (a respected music-video director).

"Three Kings" is rated R for realistic wartime violence, including gunplay and explosions, rampant profanity, graphic gore, a lengthy torture scene, use of racial epithets and ethnic slurs, some crude humor, a brief simulated sex scene and brief male nudity.